


just shut up and drive

by the_midnight_huntress



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Dorks in Love, Driving Instructor AU, Fluff, M/M, One Shot, Romance, both are very adorkable, instructor!will, nico is a smol bean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 13:46:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14812506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_midnight_huntress/pseuds/the_midnight_huntress
Summary: Tumblr prompt by @solangeloprompts: Mortal AU. Will Solace is a driving instructor known to be able to properly teach his students within a short period of time. That is, until Nico di Angelo comes along who by far is the most unteachable student he’s ever had.Nico di Angelo, let’s just say, actually can get it right the first time and the many times after but kept failing on purpose. If only to spend a bit more time with his hot blond instructor.It’ll only be a short amount of time though before Nico gets caught for his stunts.





	just shut up and drive

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I know nothing about driving except for a few lessons I took eons ago. So please excuse any inaccuracies.

 

Will heaved a great sigh and allowed his head to thump back onto the seat. Honey-gold curls were damp with sweat, the slouching posture of his shoulders betraying the exhaustion after hours spent on the road on a sweltering mid-summer day.

“One more to go,” he muttered to himself, turning on his cellphone and scrolling through that day’s agenda. His last customer for the day was-

“Again?” He said incredulously.

Nico di Angelo.

As he drove towards the place he was supposed to pick his next client up, he could not help but wonder. Nico di Angelo had been taking a month-long driving course with Will and had only finished it about two weeks ago. To think he had applied for yet  _another_  two weeks of training was, well, surreal. The mere thought brought forth the butterflies rampaging in his stomach. Nico had been a hopeless student, always mixing up the gears or pressing the brake pedal accidently, despite having been taking classes for a month. But he had been a very cute one. And Will, who prided in being able to teach driving to anyone and everyone who came to him, could not even bring himself to be frustrated by the boy’s utter lack of co-ordination.

After all, it was all the more reason to see him.

As he cruised slowly to a halt at the designated spot- 46th Oakhelm Avenue- his breath caught in his throat.

Nico stood at a curb, dressed in tight black stone-washed jeans with a plain black tee and a red overall over it.  _No_   _one_  had the right to look that good when they were going for a driving lesson!

Nico spotted his car and approached it, just as Will stepped out of the driver’s seat. His thoughts were like loose fragments of thread swaying in the wind- scattered and without coherence.

The corner of Nico’s mouth quirked upwards in a shy half-smile as he murmured, “Hey again.”

Will opened his mouth to answer- something,  _anything_ \- but Nico was quite close now and he could still envision the combat boots the boy had paired with his ensemble. His brain went into its default state and all he could blurt out was, “Hi, welcome to Hephaestus’ Wheels. I’ll be your instructor for this session.”

There was a long pause.

Nico raised an eyebrow. Heat flooded Will’s cheeks at the confused look on the other’s face.

“Uh, Will, this isn’t my first session with you. Why are you saying that?”

Will coughed awkwardly and finally stepped away from the car door, allowing Nico to slide smoothly behind the wheel.

“Sorry, I just- it’s been a long day,” he replied. He buckled himself into the passenger seat.

“I can imagine,” Nico agreed. “Driving all day in this heat must be pretty tough.”

He glanced down at the steering wheel, long fingers clenching and unclenching reflexively in his uneasiness. It was quite difficult to initiate conversation and he was hopeless at it.

And that was the most adorable thing Will had ever seen. He flashed the other boy a beaming smile.

“Alright, let’s get started, shall we?”

—

“No, no, I said the second gear, not the third!”

“I know, I know!”

“Nico-”

“Will you shut up already?”

“But you are going too fast!”

“I know what I’m doing!”

“Nico, look out!”

There was a gasp and Nico slammed his foot down on the break. An almighty screech split the air as the car swerved sharply and just narrowly avoided hitting a young boy that had run unexpectedly onto the road.

The boy trundled away blithely, the red rubber ball he had been chasing clutched tightly in his hand. Will and Nico remained silent for a few moments, their hearts beating hard against their ribcages.

“Well,” Will’s breath whooshed out in a harsh exhale. “Let’s try to go slow this time, yeah?”

“Okay,” Nico muttered, unable to argue with him. He restarted the car.

—

Nico had been anticipating the end of the day eagerly. He was jittery and his eyes kept flitting towards the clock on the wall opposite, an action the failed to go unnoticed by Piper. She arched a perfect eyebrow at him and he pretended not to notice.

As soon as the bell signalling the end of school trilled, he shot out of his seat and was outside the building before his friends had reached their lockers.

“What’s up with him?” Leo demanded, squinting in the sunlight as the group emerged into the parking lot.

Nico was waiting by Jason’s Bentley, the picture of nonchalance, but Jason could see the tautness of his muscles and the way he had dressed carefully that morning despite absolutely loathing fashion in any shape or form. A small smirk curled his mouth.

“Oi, Nico. What’s up?” Percy called.

“What? What do you mean?”

“You seem in a hurry,” Annabeth commented. Her stormy gray eyes seem to see right through him.

“I just need to get to my driving class. It starts in fifteen minutes,” Nico replied, carding his fingers through his mop of raven hair so that stuck up in feathery tufts.

Jason unlocked the car, just as Hazel inquired, “Driving lessons? Why do you need driving lessons? You are-”

“Well, would you look at the time? We have to go. Bye.” Nico grabbed Jason by the back of his shirt and shoved him bodily into the car before running around to slide into the passenger seat.

The car peeled away from the curb, leaving a confused silence and the echo of Jason’s raucous laughter in its wake.

“Well, that was… weird,” Piper decided.

—

The driving lesson went a lot better that day, compared to their previous…  _misadventure_.

“Hey, I think you’re really getting the hang of this,” Will exclaimed when Nico parked the car at 46th Oakhelm Avenue at the end of their lesson.

Nico gave him a small smile. “You think so?”

“Yeah. Soon, you wont need me there at all!”

Will was not sure why Nico’s eyes windened at that, or why he glanced away. A quiet kind of unease seemed to have settled upon him and Will wondered if he had said something wrong.

“…yeah,” Nico responded finally. “I guess so. So, that’s it for today then?”

Will wasn’t sure why he did what he did next- it could have been the morose way Nico said the words, or the way the butterflies were dancing a tango in his chest or the way he could see flecks of gold in Nico’s normally fathomless dark irises when the light hit it just right- but he blurted out, “Don’t go yet!”

Nico froze and blinked at him.

Will flushed scarlet and added, “I was wondering if you…uh, if you’d like to grab a coffee with me? I know a really cool place a few blocks from here.”

Nico’s eyes became impossibly bigger. Soft pink dusted his cheeks and Will was smitten.

“Yeah,” Nico replied breathlessly. “I’d… I’d like that.”

—

Nico threw himself on his bed, the springs squeaking in protest beneathe his weight. A smile stretched his mouth so wide that his cheeks hurt. When was the last time he had enjoyed talking to someone this much?

He was scrolling through his old text conversations with Will- they had ended up exchanging numbers after they had had coffee together and had been texting nonstop since- when his musings were interrupted by his cellphone ringing.

 _Your Favorite Bro_ flashed across the screen and he swiped it to attend the call.

“What do you want, Jason?”

Jason had edited his contact on Nico’s phone months ago and well, Nico did not have the heart to change it back. Not that he would ever admit it to the older boy.

“Neeks, I’m stranded and I need your help!”

“Okay, first off, don’t call me that. Secondly, where are you and what happened?”

“My car broke down and I had to have it towed to the nearest workshop. Now I need you to take me home. And you know you love the nickname.”

Nico rolled his eyes. He jammed the phone between his shoulder and ear as he threw on his red overall and sneakers. “Why can’t you take a bus?”

“I am too lazy. Hurry, Neeks!”

“I’m coming, I’m coming! Geez.”

Jason gave him the address and Nico got in his car- a sixteenth birthday present from his father- and drove over there. His driving was smooth with practiced ease and reached his destination in under five minutes.

“Hey, Neeks!” Jason called out to him. “Just give me a sec, I need to discuss the repair charges with Mr. Hedge.”

Nico nodded. Jason turned away to talk to a portly man who looked like he would be happier smashing up cars rather than repairing them.

“Nico?”

He froze.

_No. No way. What were the chances that he, of all people, would be here?_

Nico turned his head and his heart stuttered at the sight of the tall, golden-haired boy standing a few feet away.

“Uh,” Nico said very eloquently. Then, “What are you doing here?”

“I came here for my car’s weekly check-up. It  _is_  my source of income currently.”

“Right.” Nico had never felt more anxious or embarassed in his life. Will looked gorgeous in a pair of cargo pants and pale blue shirt that brought out the color of his eyes. The late afternoon sunlight glinted through his hair. And the question on his face was obvious.

“You know how to drive?” Will demanded, gesturing to the sleek black sports car behind Nico.

“Well, I-” Nico sighed. “Yeah.”

“Why have you been taking driving leasons then? And pretending to be completely useless at it?”

“Hey! I wasn’t that bad!” Nico huffed. “I just- actually-”

He could feel his palms sweating. Will’s cerulean eyes were peircing. Nico took a deep breath.

“I just wanted an excuse to see you,” he muttered finally. “I…I really like you, Will.”

There was only silence. Nico stared steadfastly at his shoes, memorising the well-worn soles and the orange colored laces Hazel had forced him to buy. It was easier than looking up.

“You idiot.”

Nico flinched, but then Will went on, “You could have just said so, you know. Instead of driving recklessly and being a hazard to humanity out on the streets.”

There was amusement in Will’s voice and laughter dribbled through Nico’s stomach, filled with relief and joy.

“So, uh, would you like to go out sometime? This Saturday?” Will asked shyly. His cheeks were blazing and Nico felt giddy at the thought that  _he_  was the cause of that.

“Yeah.” He smiled. “It’s a date. And I’ll pick you up, to prove to you that I am not a  _complete_  disaster when it comes to driving.”

Will laughed. “Okay then. See you.”

When Jason finally came over, he was surprised but not at all confused to see the dazed expression on his friend’s face. He smirked. It seemed his plan had worked.

“Come on, Romeo. Time to go plan for your big date with Piper.”

“Yeah- wait- how did you know that? Jason?!”

 


End file.
